Chamber and committees

As I acknowledged in my speech, landlords are in different financial circumstances. We seek to recognise that, and there are landlords who have done their best not to pass on rent increases in difficult times. However, does Murdo Fraser recognise that there are also landlords who have sought to exploit every opportunity to increase rent? What does he say to my constituents and those around the country who are being notified of rent increases of 30 or 40 per cent or more? Does he not share my concern about our need to protect people from that kind of behaviour?

I think that the member will acknowledge that we did not just say no. We went into the matter in a substantial amount of detail. It was very clear, even from the closing speech in the stage 3 debate on the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill, that, regrettably, the member who was moving amendments 72 and 73 on rent freezes was relying on a legal precedent that not only was decades old but related to the renting of a single property that was let out without toilets or running water, which had to be installed at the tenant’s own expense. That was the precedent that was being cited to justify a two-year blanket rent freeze.

I hope that the member can accept that the Government is getting the detail right, which is what we have to do if we want the protection to exist in the real world.

The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and I have had conversations with the social housing sector. We are very aware that we need to take account not only of the protection that people need from rent increases but of the social housing sector’s need to invest in the provision of new homes and improvements in quality. We will continue to make great efforts to engage with the sector as we move forward.

The proposed rent freeze will be in place across both parts of the rented sector. Any emergency action must, by definition, be temporary and its on-going necessity must be continually reviewed. Therefore, given the huge uncertainty as to what the next six months and beyond will bring, we intend to build in regular review points and consider carefully whether and how any measures might be extended beyond that initial period and how those measures will impact on and complement the longer-term reform of the rented sector to which we have already committed during the parliamentary session.

I am sorry that Mr Kerr chose not to listen to the answer that I gave, in which I explicitly said that I was not making a prediction about what the cost of zero-emissions heating systems would be after 2024. He suggested that I made that prediction, but I did not.

Everybody in the industry is clear that we need to scale up not only the production of the kit—many of the valuable jobs involving that work will be located in Scotland—but the capacity of the industry to carry out those installations. We are working with the industry to build that capacity, which is expected to reduce the costs over time.

All political parties have committed very clearly to the legally binding climate targets, which cannot be met without ambitious action on zero-emissions heating. I wish, for goodness’ sake, that the Conservative Party would start to get behind the actions that the Scottish Government is taking to ensure that we not only hit those climate targets but do so in a way that benefits the cost of living and the economy in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to written parliamentary question S6W-10120, which was provided on 25 August this year. The research cited found that the cost of installing a zero-emissions heating system ranged from £2,000 to £5,000 more than the cost of installing a gas boiler. However, those costs are highly variable—they depend on a range of factors—and they do not represent predictions of the costs after the 2024 change.

The sale price of a new building is determined by individual developers, and it takes account of a wide range of variables related to building construction costs and local housing markets. Typically, heating system installation costs have a smaller impact on prices than other factors do.

Clearly, we will introduce legislation, which will go through parliamentary scrutiny, and it has to meet the legal tests, just as any proposed legislation going through Parliament does. Is the member actually saying that we should have signalled our intention in advance, resulting in a wave of rent increase notices before that legislation was in place?

Liz Smith raises a very important point about the wider cost crisis that is impacting on public services and businesses throughout our economy. Does she agree that the intervention from the UK Government on energy prices must ensure that all those organisations gain that benefit and that the cost should fall on the shoulders of those who have been raking in record profits?

As the First Minister said yesterday, the programme for government comes against the backdrop of unprecedented circumstances—circumstances that threaten a humanitarian emergency in every community in the country. The crisis is impacting on people of all walks of life, but that impact will not be evenly felt. People on low incomes, those with poor health or who are in precarious work, those with families—especially young children—and people renting their homes will be among the hardest hit.

As a responsible Government, in order to support people, especially during this winter, we are determined to act to mitigate the impact of the crisis to the maximum extent possible within our limited powers and resources. That includes providing support for energy bills, childcare, health and travel as well as social security payments that are not available elsewhere in the UK. The programme for government also outlines important steps to support people who rent their homes, and that is what I will focus on in my speech.

First, on financial support, we are providing more than £88 million in housing support this year. That builds on the £39 million of additional funding that has already been provided to protect tenants as a result of the pandemic. In our programme for government, we have committed to extending eligibility for the tenant grant fund. That means that, as well as supporting tenants with pandemic-related rent arrears, the fund will now be able to help people who are struggling to pay rent due to cost of living pressures. We are also providing an additional £5 million for discretionary housing payments so that they can help people with energy costs as well as with rental liabilities. That takes our total investment in DHPs to more than £88 million and provides a lifeline for many people.

For some people, renting a home is a choice that they have made freely and happily, and their rented home is of good quality, secure and affordable. For others, that is not the case. People who rent, especially in the private rented sector, spend a greater proportion of their income on housing than do people who own their homes. Tenants have, on average, lower incomes. In the private rented sector, energy standards are also poorer. Therefore, many people who live in a rented home already faced an incredibly challenging and precarious financial situation, and the new crisis only exacerbates those problems for many tenants throughout Scotland.

Although we know that, as the Government regularly restates, there are many responsible landlords who provide a good service and try to protect their tenants, we also know that that is not universal. I am certain that I am not the only MSP who has constituents getting in touch about eye-watering rent increases.

Few people would defend the extraordinary inaction from the UK Government over the summer or the frankly insulting remarks of the man who overstayed his tenure in Downing Street, who said that people should deal with the energy crisis by buying a new kettle. We have to hope that we will see some significant action from the new Prime Minister. However, throughout the leadership campaign, she repeatedly refused to commit to providing sufficient support to deal with the crisis. That is not what the Scottish Government will do.

We have examined what we can do within our devolved powers and limited budget to support people who are bearing the brunt of the crisis now. We have, of course, already taken important steps. We put in place direct support and stronger housing rights during the pandemic, and we have since made them permanent. In doing so, we made it clear that we would continue to seek new ways to give the support that is needed. That is why our programme for government sets out new, immediate and bold action that we will take.

We will work with the Parliament to introduce emergency legislation that will be designed to protect tenants by freezing rents and imposing a moratorium on evictions until at least the end of March next year. We will ensure that rents are, in effect, frozen from yesterday, when the announcement was made, and we will introduce a prohibition on executing eviction decrees for a limited period, which will be similar to the measures that were in place during the pandemic.

The strategy is a very broad, co-ordinated package of policies and support programmes, including £1.8 billion of investment, widening the scope of our capital and advice programmes and collaborating with a wide range of partners through the green heat finance task force. I am aware of the pressure of time—there is a great more detail in the strategy, and I encourage Bill Kidd, and all members, to work closely with us in the implementation of that strategy.

The member is quite right to point out the huge potential not only for connecting social housing developments to existing heat networks, but for investing further, including in publicly owned heat networks. When I launched the strategy, I visited one in West Dunbartonshire, where the local authority has taken the lead in developing that capacity. One of the roles of the new national energy agency with be to work with local government to build capacity, for which there is huge potential in the years ahead.